Red (2010)
Red (2010) — Entertaining. There are laughs, shit blows up, and likeable actors act likeable. I’d say this movie delivers pretty much everything it promises in the trailer. Having never read the comic I can’t say whether or not it lives up to its source material. Don’t really care too much really. It may not have achieved any sort of “high art” status and it isn’t even in my Top 5 action movies of the year but I had fun with it so it did its job. I’d go with matinee prices or if your home theater system is decent enough just wait for disc. As far as geriatric action movies go this has a lighter tone than The Expendables, a movie starring old actions stars that took itself too seriously (but made up for it by being substantially more badass). At 38, Karl Urban is the youngest person in the main cast of this movie. And Bruce Willis beats the shit out of him. They should make an AARP ad with that or something. The movie mostly works because it has leads like Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, and John Malkovich (playing crazy) in it. Also Morgan Freeman sleepwalks through, but Morgan’s one of those dudes who can get away with it. Director Robert Schwentke also did the movie Flightplan, a movie I think I saw but am not sure I did. I think maybe ten years down the line Red might fall into that same category but I still enjoyed it.
Persistence of Vision 